The goats have been living like they own the place.  Pretty much free access with a couple of "off limit" areas -- the lawn, the flower garden, the vegetable garden.  But as far as around the miscellaneous farm buildings... Well, let's say they have been encouraged to explore there boundaries -- and beyond.

All was well until neighbor who rents our grain bin unloaded the corn from the grain bin to be sold.  There's no way that some corn won't be spilled, but honestly.  There was no goat cry issued that said "COME AND GET IT".  But come they did and let's just say the results of a sudden diet change was felt.  Because I would call our fences more of a suggestion for the goats (they work great for the horses!) there was no stopping them except to lock them up in the cattle shed.

I don't want them locked up in the cattle shed.  The kids are bored so they fill their time by eating ... MY precious goat milk.  And therefore I went on a fence building rampage.  Nothing can stop me!  So let's assess the situation ... We're going to fence the south  corral.

Looks like the old fenceline needs to be torn out.

And gotta tear out the old feedbunks ... 

A little bit of goat proofing repair to the building.  All right!  Materials are purchased.  Let's get started!

Of course, maybe we should have picked a day that it didn't rain!  Plans have been thwarted momentarily, but I'm still on a rampage!  But with the rain...we were in the house before 8 pm!  I don't remember the last time that has happened!

Have a good night!

MMMMMMMMMMMMM....
It was a smelly weekend as I made soap and lotion bars.  Getting stuff figured out! First up was lotion bars!  The first time they were too hard, the second time too greasy, and the the third time ... just right!  and the flavor is Nectarine with a hint of cocoa ... mmm...  Here's what the end result looked like. 

Next weekend am going to make a Rose Shea lotion bar.  I started this weekend by making a trip outside and snipping the best looking roses.

Then I added some olive oil with the rose petals for some smelly oil.  mmm...
It needs to infuse all week.  I checked earlier and it smells wonderful.  And this was so much fun that I picked some peonies and have a peony infusion in process too.  Ok, it's time to make soap!  First melt your oils.

Then add the lye to the goat's milk.  Slow-w-w-ly.  (The chunks are frozen goats milk.)  Then add the lye milk mixture to the oils and use that stick blender to get it to the trace stage.

Then it's time to cook.  It will go thru 3 stages ... Gel, Applesauce, and finally Mashed potatoes.

Yup!  Mashed Potatoes.  And ... drumroll ...

Nectarine Blossom Peach Tea ... MMMMMM...

Experiment # 1:
Castille (100% Olive Oil) soap:  Nice.  Very Softening.  Very Low on lather.  hmmm....
Experiment # 2:
"Regular Soap" ... still curing... who knew waiting would be this hard.
Experiment # 3:
I'd rather not talk about it. 

But it made me decide maybe it would be best to get really good at a single recipe instead of doing a bunch of experiments.  Decided to do hot process so that I could start to use it right away and decide if it's a keeper.

Picked out "the recipe" to perfect. 
Round 1 ... Added scent for the first time. Bar smells luscious but is still soft and is 'ugly'.  Am giving it a week to harden it up somewhat before using.  Am going to try perfecting the looks and see if I can improve.  It turned out a gold color and i would prefer closer to white ... will see.  Also got my first air bubbles so will be giving that extra attention.
Round 2 ... It's cooking!  Here is what it looked like in the pot before I put it in the oven.  It looked delicious ... a buttery yellow.  But it won't stay that color as long as I hot process....

And slightly off topic, Dakota discovered Momma and baby raccoons in the hayloft.  Brother and friends saved the day and got them out of the barn.  The babies (4 of them) are now at a buddies house.  Better them than us!

In preparation for Jakeob's graduation, I went searching for plants to dig up and divide.  I had this 'flag iris' (I think) that had a lot of beautiful foliage although the flower was on the tiny side in comparison to all that foliage.  Perfect candidate...maybe dividing it will be the ticket to encourage it to flower more.  So I'll just quick dig it out.  Change of plans, I will grunt, groan and pant as I finally dig a small piece of it out.

I split into 4, but am expecting them to very quickly fill in the space. 
But enough of that back breaking work, let's just take a garden stroll.

Lovely.  Grandma left an angel and a birdhouse in the garden. :) Let's take a closer look at the birdhouse.

On closer look, a wasp nest has moved into the birdhouse.  Maybe it's best if we moved on.

Here's something new in the garden...baby Pak Choy that's gone to seed.  <sigh>. 
When all else fails...bedtime...good night...